Bungie’s latest, Marathon, has barely been out a few weeks, but the developer is clearly keen to keep the ball rolling and start carving out a space for its most hardcore players. To that end, the developer is launching Marathon’s Ranked mode later this week, and we’ve finally got details about what exactly that’ll look like.
First and foremost, Marathon’s Ranked mode will be unlocked on March 21 at 10 AM PT / 1PM ET. To access the mode, you must first reach level 25. Moving forward, Ranked will only be open to play on the weekends, much like Destiny’s Trials of Osiris playlist, and crews of all sizes will be able to play Ranked.
Every weekend, the Ranked playlist will run on a “different planet-side zone,” like Perimeter, Dire Marsh, or Outpost. The first weekend, perhaps unsurprisingly, will take place on Marathon’s beginner map, Perimeter. Curiously, the language on Bungie’s post emphasizes “planet-side,” which could mean that the game’s forthcoming endgame zone Cryo Archive, which takes place on the titular Marathon ship, might also be available at the same time, though Bungie has not outright said as much at this time.
Besides that, much of the basics of Ranked playlists in other games is featured here. There are six ranks (Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, Diamond, Pinnacle) and each features three tiers to work through. Leveling through the ranks will net you loot packages that’ll have gears and keys for you to use in-game. At the end of a season, you will be rewarded based on your highest rank of the season, as opposed to just your current standing. Each rank has associated rewards, and Bungie has already outlined the rewards for the first season:
- Pinnacle – A gun style and title
- Diamond – A gun style
- Platinum – A gun style
- Gold – A Runner Shell style for Destroyer and a title
- Silver – A player background
The goal of Marathon’s Ranked mode is to meet your team’s score target and successfully exfil. As long as you do both, your crew will earn rated points (RP) and climb the ranks. If you exfil without meeting the score, you do not gain RP. If you die and therefore do not extract, you lose RP.
Put your survival skills to the test, climb the competitive ladder, and prove you’re a top Runner on Tau Ceti in Ranked mode. pic.twitter.com/wDexA8oeWX
— Marathon (@MarathonTheGame) March 18, 2026
Here’s where things get a bit more complicated.
Ranked mode in Marathon introduces a new piece of gear called Holotags that are required to play the mode and are carried in the player’s bag. Holotags can be purchased in the armory and come in tiers equal to those on the Ranked ladder i.e Bronze, Gold, Pinnacle, etc. Each Holotag determines a number of values going into a match, including your team’s cumulative score target, loss penalty, and overperformance capacity, which is the only way for crews to collect loot totaling more than the score target.
Basically, the higher the value of your team’s Holotags, the higher the score you will have to reach, the greater penalty you will face for losing, and the more you can earn overperformance capacity. Players can increase their overperformance capacity by looting Holotags off of other players or collecting Tag Chips from high-ranking UESC enemies and in-game map events. Tag Chips also count towards score targets, so players are encouraged to take on Lockdowns and any other dynamic events that might occur in the middle of a match.
Ranked will be split into two queues: Low Stakes and High Stakes. The former requires that your starting gear total 3,000 and that you have, at bare minimum, a Bronze Holotag. The latter raises that standard significantly, requiring your gear total 10,000 in value and that you have at least a Platinum Holotag. High risk, high reward.
For the sake of letting players build up their vaults, Marathon’s first Ranked weekend will only have Low Stakes queues open.
Finally, Bungie has stated that the first season of Marathon’s Ranked mode is very much a work in progress. “Ranked mode is in beta for Season 2, and we’ll be watching closely for your feedback,” reads Bungie’s post. That means that these systems are not necessarily set in stone, and could change over the course of the season and lifetime of the game.
Considering how responsive Bungie has already been to feedback since Marathon’s launch, I’d expect things to change quite consistently while the team fine-tunes its take on Ranked mode.
